The unauthorized reproduction of consumer electronic products, data storage media, medical devices, and telecom products, as well as several other products, is increasing. Attracted to these industries due to impressive sales volumes and potentially high revenues, unauthorized manufactures are capable of flooding the market with counterfeit products that are difficult for consumers, and in some cases, even manufacturers, to distinguish from authentic products. As a result consumers and manufacturers are detrimentally impacted by these often poor-quality counterfeits. Consumers that take receipt of these reproductions often experience inferior and/or faulty performance. As an example, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has reported that one cellular telephone manufacturer was forced to recall over 50,000 products from April of 2001 to November of 2003 due to consumers' complaints of product damage caused by counterfeit batteries that reportedly overheat. In yet another example, another cellular telephone manufacturer recalled over 1,000,000 units sold between December 2002 and September 2004, again due to counterfeit batteries overheating.
In addition to the obvious consumer dissatisfaction, manufacturers whose products are reproduced also suffer from the effects of counterfeiting with loss of sales revenues and, even more importantly, the degradation of brand image as a result of perceived inferior product performance.
In order to circumvent counterfeiting, manufacturers have employed many authentication methods. One such method comprised the employment of laser printed and/or holographic labels. Although such labels posed a technical hurdle to counterfeiting, unauthorized manufacturers were able to produce labels indistinguishable from the originals. In another example, anti-piracy circuits have been added to data storage media in order to hinder counterfeiting. In this example as well, unauthorized manufacturers have been able to integrate the electronic anti-piracy circuits into the counterfeit products, rendering the products indistinguishable during supply chain authentication testing.
Due to the detrimental effects on consumers and manufacturers by counterfeit products, a need remains for additional authentication methods that can protect consumers and manufacturers. Disclosed herein are devices and methods for authenticating batteries.